Staniszewski sweeps Slomczyn. Borges collects Portuguese Cup.

7 April / The first round of the Polish Rallycross Championship provided little in the way of a challenge to Zbyszek Staniszewski who guided his Fiesta through the event to notch up and unchallenged victory. Michal Peterlejtner (Skoda Fabia) was second to Staniszewski in every phase of the event while Thomas Sokal placed third in the final, his only slip in the event being in H3 where his Toyota Yaris was a non-starter. The Supernational classes had a total of eight starters, Roman Castoral best of the -2000 trio while Lukasz Swiatowski led home the +2000 final in his Honda Civic. When the two groups met, Castoral took the win, his Opel Astra chased home by the BMW E46 of “Gigi” and Lukasz Zoll’s Volvo S40 as Swiatowski slipped to fourth place. There were 16 starters in the BMW-based RWD Cup and Igor Sokulski (E36) won the final at the end of a day in which he dominated proceedings and was not beaten. Leon Jurek (E36) qualified third but worked his way up to second in the final, Oliwier Dobrowolski (E36) taking third ahead of Malgorzata Prus (E37) who had qualified second. Jakub Kabat worked slightly harder to win the Fiat-based SC Cup. Beaten in the second heat, Kabat won in all other phases of the event. Filip Melon, who fastest in H2 was second in H1 and H4 but disqualified from H3 and a non-finisher in the second semi-final. Patryk Pawlikowski and Przemyslaw Kapustka completed the podium in the final.

European rallycross Champion Damian Litwinowicz raced at Slomczyn, driving a Cross Car in the first event of the Polish Autocross Championship that ran in parallel to the rallycross event. He made it to the final but was a non-finisher after an incident late in the race.

8 April / American racer Ellis Spiezia announces that he will race in the FIA RX2e series in 2024. The 18-year-old who is based in Germany is forging a career around racing electric cars, most recently racinhg in the NXT Gen Cup in 2023. “I am super excited to take the next step in my electric motorsport journey with QEV Tech in the RX2e Championship this season. Rallycross will be a new challenge for me and is an incredible application for electric powertrain tech”, said Spiezia who tested a car at Calafat in Spain recently.

12 April / The postponed first round of the Italian Rallycross Championship has been rescheduled to 6-7 July at Maggiora. After delaying its season opener because of bad weather, RX Italia will now begin on 4-5 May at Ittiri.

14 April / The Portuguese season began with the non-championship Open event, staged at Castelo Branco and marking the venue’s return to rallycross. Among a small but competitive entry, Alexandre Borges (Semog Bravo) won the Kartcross final ahead of Jaoa Pinheiro (LBS RX01), the latter then winning the ‘Division One’ Kartcross final. Andre Monteiro (Peugeot 206) won the 2WD class and Tiago Ventura (Citroen Saxo) was the Junior winner and Manuel Ramos took victory in the PopCross 2CV category which, with 12 starters, was the biggest class in the event. “For us, the Race Management and Organising Committee, this race was a huge success, especially because it represents, after a two-year hiatus, the return of national Rallycross to our track and to Castelo Branco. As for how it went, we are very happy because, given the conditions we faced, we are convinced that we fully complied with what was required of us and now we have to wait for the final opinion, being certain that our objective is to be back in the Championship of Portugal in Rallycross. We can only wait for the end of the season to see if our efforts will bear fruit in 2025,” said Joao Lucas, President of the Castelo Branco organiser.

This weekend / The Polish Championship moves on to Tor Poznan where it is joined by the first round of the Czech national championship. Nyirad hosts the Hungarian Championship (relive round one at Maripocs in the video below) and in the Spain the CERX moves on to Miranda de Ebro.

pics: World RX, Red Bull media pool, RX Italia, Autodrom Slomczyn, CPortugalralicross, RX2e,